


Peril in the Sandia Mountains

by hhertzof



Category: American Girls: Rebecca - Various Authors, Doc Savage - Kenneth Robeson, Ruth Fielding Series - Alice B. Emerson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 21:00:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5470613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/pseuds/hhertzof
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Doc and Co. are taken prisoner in the Sandia Mountains and it's up to Pat and a small band of her friends to save them from the danger that lurks there. Will she be able to defeat an evil that can subdue even the amazing Doc Savage?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Peril in the Sandia Mountains

**Author's Note:**

  * For [navaan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/gifts).



There were few people who didn't believe that Doc Savage was as amazing as his reputation claimed. Even the criminals he captured and the villains he thwarted had a healthy respect for the Man of Bronze. Even his cousin, Pat Savage, would have said that the stories weren't exaggerated...most of the time.

This wasn't most of the time.

Pat Savage was sitting in the luxurious hotel dining room waiting for her lunch date and fuming that her cousin had left her behind once again, when the manager brought her the message. Reading the missive, she caught the manager's eye, and requested a telephone. Soon she was requesting to be connected to Colonial Andrew Blogget Mayfair's laboratory in New York. Monk, as he was commonly known in their group, was, of course, in Albuquerque, New Mexico with the rest of them, Pat included, but Pat wasn't looking for him.

"Lea, it's Pat. I just got the most curious note in your boss' most illegible handwriting." Lea was as competent as she was beautiful, and though Doc might consider her just Monk's secretary, Monk's protégée might be a more apt description. Lea showed amazing promise as a chemist and she had already published several papers both alone and coauthored with Monk that were causing a stir in certain circles.

Pat read the note over the line, and Lea confirmed her suspicions. Though it might seem to be a simple ransom note, Monk had contrived to word it in such a way that told Lea...and Pat...everything they needed to know, down to the geographic coordinates of where the six men were being held.

Pat shook her head, wondering how they'd managed to get the jump on Doc. She thanked Lea, and both expressed the utmost regret that this was a time sensitive caper, and that Lea would be missing out on the action. Pat had reason to know how good Lea was in a pinch.

Thankfully she had other resources, starting with the two women who were approaching her table right now. Pat pasted a smile on her face and stood to greet them.

"Sorry we're late," Ruth Fielding might look like she spent her days in careless ease, but the pretty brunette was in actuality a famed motion picture magnate and scenario writer. Her career had led her to all the corners of the globe and into and out of danger countless times, perhaps providing inspiration for some of her movies. "We just couldn't get that scene right. Then we lost the light. I'm having the film developed immediately to see if we can salvage any of it, but if not, we'll have to try again tomorrow."

The fresh-faced woman who had come in with Ruth had been stopped by autograph seekers, and was cheerfully chatting with her fans. Rebecca Rubin's face had graced countless Hollywood magazines, and Pat knew that several other studios had sought and failed to persuade her to break her contract with the Fielding Film company, but Beckie's loyalty was absolute. 

Ruth and Beckie were currently in Albuquerque filming a moving picture about the Sandia Indians, and Pat had used their presence as an excuse to catch a ride on Doc's plane, when he'd been invited to consult at one of the sanitariums in the area. 

Pat had been suspicious from the start. While Doc had a great medical mind, his specialty was surgery, not TB, and she had known that Long Tom and Renny were currently involved in a dam-building project in the Sandia Mountains, and Johnny was employed at a nearby archaeological site at the personal request of Professors Song and Summerfield, the two women who had facilitated the dig. Her skepticism had only increased when Ham and Monk had decided to go along. Why would the entire team be gathering if there wasn't adventure in the offing?

It hadn't taken much convincing to get Doc to let her cage a ride. For all his larger-than-life skills, her cousin was all too susceptible to her innocent act and her story did have some truth to it. Pat had known Ruth since one of the movie magnate's scenarios had been filmed on Pat's father's property years before. Once Pat had established her combination beauty salon and gymnasium on Park Avenue, she'd made a point of investing a portion of her profits in Fielding Film Company. All Pat had to do was say she wanted to look in on her investment and give Doc her best wide-eyed look, and he'd acquiesced. 

Pat had spent the last few days visiting with Ruth at the scenic vista where the scenario was being filmed, which was not all that far from the construction site. The two groups had intermingled freely after each day's work was done, and Ruth had parlayed the acquaintance into permission to film some shots of both the construction, though it was unknown as yet whether these scenes would be used in the current film. Pat had met Rebecca Rubin on a previous shoot, and the three women had quickly developed a warm rapport, based partially, it must be said, on rolling their eyes at the men.

Over the course of their presence in Albuquerque many odd incidents had marred the progress of both endeavors. On the movie set, reels of developed film had gone missing, costumes that had been put away clean were discovered to be dirty and ripped, and this morning they had discovered that the gate had been left open and the horses had escaped, though they hadn't gone far. At the dam, blueprints had been damaged or disappeared, equipment had gone missing, and today, scaffolding had collapsed, thankfully with no one on it.

Rumors had spread through both camps of Indian curses in a blatant attempt to cause dissent, but the Sandia natives had just rolled their eyes and somehow managed to convince their white and Mexican coworkers that there was nothing behind the stories, which sounded more like a movie scenario than anything that originated in their tribe. Pat had even caught Ruth taking notes for a future production.

In her time associating with Doc's team, Pat had seen worse, and she suspected that whoever was behind these inconveniences had intended his or her actions to be more catastrophic to all three ventures. However, it had become clear that someone wanted them all off the mountain.

Pat made small talk with Ruth until Beckie had extricated herself from her fans. Once Beckie sat down and the three had ordered, Pat lost no time in filling them in on what she knew. Ruth's husband Tom had accompanied Doc and his men as they attempted to track the persons responsible for the theft of some explosives from the dam construction site, having nearly caught the saboteurs in the act. And now there was this note, stating that if a large sum of money wasn't brought to a certain place at midnight, one by one the men in the party would be executed.

It was an audacious threat, if their enemies assumed that the women who had been left behind were helpless. The three of them had a hearty laugh at that and then took their time over dinner, working out their plans. Once they'd finished their repast, Pat, Ruth, and Beckie separated to change out of their gowns and into something more appropriate for a stealth mission, then climbed into Ruth's roadster and headed for the airstrip. Pat was almost certain that the boys had their weapons with them, all except her cousin who didn't believe in guns, and while she had her automatic carefully stowed in her bag, she'd confirmed that the other two women weren't.

Soon both Ruth and Beckie each were in possession of one of Doc's patent automatics, loaded with mercy bullets. Pat herself took advantage of the stop to add a few extra rounds to her bag. Each of the women also got one of Doc's patent spring-powered flashlights, despite the full moon. It would be dark beneath the evergreens and the note had directed them to a cave. Pat added a pack containing certain equipment that might be helpful on their trek.

* * *

"This trail is easier in boots," Beckie said softly as they neared the cave. She had nearly twisted her ankle running down the same path in high heeled shoes the day before, while filming an exciting scene. It had been during the filming of that scene that Ruth and Beckie had discovered this alternate route to the locale named in the note, which had led them to their current scheme.

"But you did it." Ruth said firmly. "And we're not refilming." It was an old argument, but for a moment, Pat was grateful that Ham and Monk weren't with them. _Their_ arguments would wake the dead. At least Beckie  & Ruth's bickering didn't involve fisticuffs...or threats against innocent swine.

"Almost there," Pat said, motioning for the other three to stay low.

"We inspected this cave at the beginning of our dig, but it was too dark to film in," Ruth supplied. "Not that it was very interesting. We decided that we could contrive a better cave in the studio for those scenes." Such was the way of film production.

"It appears you were mistaken," Pat replied, gesturing with her flashlight, the beam narrowed till it was no more than a pinpoint. "That looks very interesting, indeed." A pale glow emanated from the wall, forming three sides of a rectangle. A door.

"I don't know how we missed this." Ruth frowned as she stepped close enough to run her fingers over the wall. "There must be a switch on this side to open it. Help me look."

Just as the three women set to work, Beckie yelped, "Wait. That rock doesn't look right." Her light revealed that this was true, the gray stone was dome-shaped and showed none of the variations of texture or color that anything produced naturally would have displayed.  
She stepped forward as if to touch it, but Pat laid a hand on her shoulder. "No, it could be a trap." She selected a pebble and expertly threw it at the rock in question. All thre women half their breath. Nothing happened for a moment, then light flooded the cave, as the door slid open preternaturally silent.

Pat nodded to Ruth and Beckie and they moved to reconnoiter. They still had two hours till the time specified in the note and it seemed as though the kidnappers hadn't even bothered to post a guard. Perhaps they'd believed that the threats of harm to their loved ones would keep the women safely tucked away in their hotel until the assigned rendezvous. Perhaps they were unaware of the treacherous path that the three women had climbed to reach this spot. Perhaps they assumed that Pat and co. would disdain such a difficult track and come by the main road. Even Doc would have called them fools.

A row of torches in sconces riveted into the stone of the cavern proved to be the light source. They considered dousing it, but decided that the lack of light might be as telling. Instead they moved carefully. The cave narrowed and then opened revealing three passages branching off in different directions.

Once again, Beckie's quick eyes came to the rescue. "What's that?" She picked up a small piece of fabric. "Isn't this that awful shirt of Tom's?"

"It isn't awful," Ruth protested. But she examined it and concurred. "Left then?" She glanced at Pat.

In answer, Pat pulled a piece of equipment from her pack. It was the device Doc used to read messages his men left in the invisible chalk they all carried. Pat trained it at the wall, revealing a thin line that hadn't been visible in the torchlight. One of the men had managed to run his hand along the side of the tunnel as they went, the chalk concealed between his fingers.

The three women looked at each other, all thinking the same thing. Someone had set a trap for them. And once again, that someone had vastly underestimated the threesome.

The chalk led them through a series of caves as they widened and narrowed. Once or twice they nearly lost the way at a crossroads, but they swiftly found it again. The subterranean passage darkened as they left the torches behind, but they had their flashlights and continued on at the the same swift pace. Occasionally they came upon a guard, who was swiftly dispatched by one of the three women.

A plank bridge over a deep roaring river made Beckie roll her eyes. "The one I crossed in _Treasure of the Cascades_ was twice as long, half as wide, and not nearly as stable."

To Pat's disappointment, they hadn't even bothered with the usual staples of such sites. The threesome came across no sinkholes, no motion-triggered arrows or daggers, no floors that suddenly turned to lava. The few places where they might have had to scale sheer expanses of rock, they found rope ladders helpfully provided by their foes.

It was almost a relief when they actually spotted a guard. Beckie expertly shot him with one of Doc's mercy bullets, and he slumped against the wall, fast asleep. No alarm was raised.

What they saw through the door that he had been guarding convinced the women that they had come in through the back way. Doc and his men and Ruth's husband Tom each shackled in individual cages around the perimeter of the room, while the masked and hooded villain of the piece ranted at them about his cunning plan to scare both the film production team and the dam builders off the mountain. Pat stifled a laugh.

Ruth had a more direct response. She calmly aimed her gun and shot the malefactor mid rant. The three women calmly picked off his minions.

Pat considered deliberately missing and letting a bullet hit Doc, but decided that he wouldn't be amused and that she didn't want to have to carry him back to the hotel. She did leave his cage till last. He was perfectly capable of getting out of those restraints himself.

Beckie was the one who finally thought to take the hood off. "I have no idea who this is," she said disappointedly.

"Some local speculator," Doc said carelessly, glaring at his cousin, who had stopped to scratch Habeus Corpus between the ears. "He had an insane scheme to buy up land on the mountain and create a ski resort, which was only a cover because he thought he'd discovered a vein of gold running under the mountain, near Johnny's archaeological site."

Pat glanced at Johnny, the geologist, a suspicion growing in her mind, which he quickly confirmed.

"Pyrite. Not gold at all," Johnny confirmed. "We've already dug up tons of the stuff."

Doc had finally tired of waiting for Pat to liberate him and taken matters into his own hands, breaking the shackles and deftly picking the lock on his cage. "You ladies will want to stay towards the back. We're going to have to fight to get out of here and it could get a little rough."

Pat rolled her eyes at the other two the moment Doc turned away. Finally some excitement. There was no reason to tell Doc about the back way. No reason at all.

**Author's Note:**

> The Sandia Mountains do exist, but assume the level of geographical research done for this story is about as much as a typical Doc Savage novel.
> 
> You don't need to know anything about Pat's team beyond what's mentioned in the fic. However, that being said, I failed at creating my own characters. 
> 
> Ruth Fielding comes from a series of Stratemeyer syndicate juvenile novels published in the 1910s and 1920s. She starts out writing scenarios (screenplays) and by the end of the series she has married, had a child and started her own film company. Rebecca Rubin is the American Girl (yes, the dolls) from books set in 1914, who has an interest in pursuing a film career. 
> 
> If I were to write a sequel, it would involve what is going on in the archaeological dig with Professors Song and Summerfield. ;)


End file.
